Freedom At Last! Wheels!

Today I woke up early again to catch a ride with Thomas downtown. I know, this line is getting boring, but it's the truth! I wanted Thomas to come check out the new 2001 Suzuki Vitara I wanted to buy. This time, Tracy woke up with me and came downtown because it's far too boring for her to sit at home alone and I don't blame her.

So the three of us hopped in the car and drove down to C&C car rental. When we got there Thomas began to inspect the car while I started chatting with some of the guys who ran the place. After giving it a cursory glance, Thomas gave me the thumbs up and then bolted so he could get to work on time.

I told the people at the car place that I was definitely going to buy it so we could start the paperwork process. I just wanted some wheels! So they charged my credit car and added an extra 6% for doing so. The total came to $4770 from the sale price of $4500. Oh well, c'est la vie and you know how I feel about the banks down here for not having my cash ready.

The signed the title to me and told me to go get the bill of sale notorized. So Tracy and I walked to the notary but apparently she had stepped out for a bit. So we walked to Connections because I was informed that they also had notary services. When I got there, the woman refused to notarize it because the seller was not present. Screw that. So we walked back to the first notary but she was still not there. Then we walked back to C&C and told them that the first woman was not there, and Connections wouldn't do it with Charlie present. They explained that the first notary does it without Charlie present as a favor because she knows him. So it was settled, we had to wait for her to return because it was very unlikely that Charlie would show up to get something notarized because he has another job driving heavy trucks all day. Nothing to do except wasting time by going to breakfast!

So I brought Tracy down to Bringin The Fun and introduced her to the proprietor, Alex. We both ordered everything bagels with cream cheese and proceeded to munch. I know how Tracy likes her bagels and I think she really enjoyed the place. She was wondering why the place was so empty, which is exactly what I liked about the place.

Once we were done, we headed back over to the notary who was finally there! She signed it, stamped it, punched it with her funky stamp, charged be $10, and told me go to to Window 2. Mind you we're standing in a building that somewhat resembles a trailer in a park with signed painted in black stenciled font. Luckily the place is freezing cold on the inside and Bob Marley was playing on the radio. Every place has its trade offs I suppose.

The woman at Window 2 was some royal case of mean. She didn't say much to me, but she had an incredible attitude problem. Now I understand I'm at the DMV, but this place was empty. She probably only has to wait on one person an hour. What's there to be all pissed off about? She took my papers, gave me a hard time for writing "Jeff" instead of "Jeffrey" and scolded me saying, "We don't use nicknames in the Islands." Whatever.

So I filled out my paperwork while Tracy ran back to C&C to get the license plates. Eventually I handed the completed paperwork back to Ms. Meanie along with the plates. She gave me number and told me the cashier would call my name. So Tracy and I waited for the cashier to call my name. Once we were called up, the woman gave me an approved bill of sale, took my $40, and told me to go get insurance and bring back proof so they could then give me the registration and plates.

So Tracy and I walked all the way across toWe only had to wait a little while before they woman invited me to sit down. At this point Tracy was sitting outside chatting on the phone because she found a cellular service sweet spot. Insurance for a car in St. John is only $200 a year! They don't have much for coverage, but nobody really drives faster than 30mph around here, so I can understand why. I wrote the woman a check, she gave me an insurance card, and we were on our way. We went back to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), the gave us the plates, we went back to C&C, put the plates on, and drove away!

At this point, with freedom in my hands, it was time to go apply for a real telephone, since my Vonage phone was being a bitch. So we drove to Innovative and I sat down with a lady there who made me fill out this huge superfluous form with all this unnecessary personal information that should not have been required to get a telephone. I tried to leave some of it blank, but the woman started yelling at me, telling me she's just doing her job, blah, blah. They're not kidding around here. Customer service people would rather bitch you out than help you. Anyway.. It literally took 45 minutes as I watched her talk on the phone, slowly search and peck as she data-entered my form into this ancient mainframe screen. This is really a 10 minute process in the States, but not here. I won't go into the amazingly boring details of this process, but in the end, she said I may get a phone in two weeks, at which point I can apply for DSL. Wonderful.

After all that, I had an extremely large headache. Jumping through hoops all morning was not my cup of tea and now it was about 1:30pm. So I decided, we're going to the beach. Why not, we have wheels! So we drove up to Cinnamon Bay. As soon as we arrived it started to pour down rain pretty heavily. I handed Tracy my backpack and dove right into the bay, rain and all. I love the rain, especially being half-naked in it. So I swam for a bit and eventually realized that it would be much more fun with my snorkel, and I was also wondering where Tracy was hiding out in all this rain. So I got out of the water to go look for her.

I found her hiding in the women's bathroom avoiding the rain. So we both decided to go catch a bit of lunch to wait for the rain to stop. At the cafeteria we ordered some drinks and food and chowed them. The rains finally subsided, then we walked back down to the beach. I was about to head straight for the water, but then I saw this guy on the beach renting our Hobies. I started to talk to him for quite a bit about taking lessons. At first he was hesitant to talk with me and a little uneasy. But after a while he was chatting away as I was asking him questions about sailing and what it's like to have been living on St. John for over 30 years.

When I was finally done talking to him, Tracy and I went snorkeling a bit. The water was a little cold, but that was okay with me. We both chilled out in the water and sand for a bit, and then we both got tired and headed home. On the way home we bought some groceries and dropped off the garbage. Then we watched TV, I attempted to use the Internet which is still giving me mounds of trouble, and then we went to sleep.